B Nieuws Essay Contest

BK City — Classical architecture criticism, the inquiry into the nature of a building, rather than into a theory, has gradually disappeared over the last 15 years. In modern magazines, architects are exposed just to carefully crafted images accompanied by a text that depth wise does not surpass a press-release. There is however much to say about the newly-built. Could we, for example, conceive the Tulip Inn in Zaandam as a ridi- cule of the cities’ history, or is it a homage to the possibilities of the postmodern collage? Is the wing of Rotterdam Central an ode to technology, or a sign of powerlessness of contemporary architecture: uprooted, and ready to autonomously fly off? What, in other words, is the cultural meaning of a building? As a faculty magazine of architecture, we regret this demise of architecture criticism. What happened to those times when apart from architects, students too were engaged to think about these matters? That’s why we write a contest for architecture criticism.

The task

Write an essay of max. 1200 words. Shorter is allowed. It’s no paper, so footnotes and bibliography are not required.

The jury will choose the most en- gaging essay and judges on crite- ria as style, argumentation, and relevance.